Voice of the Whale

One of America’s most acclaimed composers, George Crumb (b. 1929) taught for over 30 years at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his many awards are a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy. In the late 1960s Crumb experimented with electrified instruments, as in the Vietnam-inspired Black Angels, while also delving deeply into the sounds of nature. He first heard humpback whale singing on a tape recording made in 1969, and Voice of the Whale took shape two years later. It is organized into three movements: Vocalise, Variations on Sea-Time, and Sea Nocturne. Beyond the notes themselves, Crumb has written a great deal of theatricality into the score. He asks each player to wear a black half-mask in order to “efface a sense of human projection . . . [and] symbolize the powerful impersonal forces of nature.” (Just so long as they can still see their music!) Additionally, we honor the composer’s request that the hall be bathed in deep blue light. The outer movements range, in Crumb’s words, from the “beginning” to the “end” of time—the influence here being Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time—while the central set of variations are subtitled according to eras of evolution: archaeozoic, protozoic, and so on. Crumb precisely instructs each performer to do fairly unconventional things with their instrument. The pianist plucks and strums the strings in the manner of John Cage’s prepared piano works; Crumb even indicates how a paper clip should be bent before placing it on the strings. The cellist uses an alternative (scordatura) tuning and frequent harmonics to hint at the ethereal pitch of the whale. Most unique is the opening cadenza for flute, during which the flautist plays and sings at the same time! At the end Crumb achieves a resolution of the infinitesimal diminuendo, repeating the final gesture seven times, each quieter than before. The very last notes are played in pantomime, completely silent, mimicking the “fade-out” technique of later popular music.

(c) Jason Stell